Sharks top Red Wings in shootout, 1-0

San Jose Sharks forward Joe Pavelski (8) collides with Detroit Red Wings forward Daniel Cleary, and narrowly misses being hit in the face by the puck, during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Detroit, Mich., Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. San Jose won 1-0 on shootouts. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings shut down the NHL’s highest-scoring team, until the clock stopped.

Logan Couture scored a shootout goal and goalie Antti Niemi stopped three Red Wings shooters to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 1-0 victory at Joe Louis Arena on Monday night.

Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Alfredsson and Todd Bertuzzi shot for the Detroit in the shootout.

Patrick Marleau took San Jose’s first shootout attempt.

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“We lost the ‘skills competition,’” Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard said after San Jose kicked off a five-game road trip with the victory.

The Sharks, who scored a league-high 39 goals in their first eight games of the season, could not beat Howard in regulation time and the overtime.

PHOTOS: Sharks get shootout win over Red Wings

But the Wings, who had 15 fewer goals in nine games than the Sharks had scored in eight, could not get any of their 24 regulation and overtime shots past Niemi as both the San Jose goalie and Howard were credited with shutouts.

The Red Wings defense, which included Xavier Oullet, who was making his NHL debut, played well, Howard said.

“They did a great job out there tonight,” Howard said after the Red Wings gave up 27 shots in three periods plus the overtime.

Detroit had surrendered 33, 37 and 40 shots in its three previous games.

“We can build off this,” Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey said.

“I thought Smitty (Brendan Smith) played his best game of the year, and Lash (Brian Lashoff) was strong.”

Ouellet, 20, was Detroit’s second pick, and the 48th overall, in the 2011 entry draft.

Paired with Smith, Ouellet played 17 minutes, 15 seconds against the Sharks, who have not lost in regulation time this season.

Smith, Jakub Kindl, Lashoff, Quincey, Ouellet and Danny DeKeyser were the Wings’ defensemen for the night.

The Red Wings carried play for most of the third period, and they out-shot the Sharks 12-6 in the 20 minutes of action.

Detroit went on a power play at 15:03 of the third period when James Sheppard was called for interference, but the Red Wings could not sneak a puck past Niemi.

With the teams at even strength, Smith’s shot from the circle to the right of Niemi went over the Sharks’ goal with about five minutes to play.

Smith had been set up by a cross-ice pass from Henrik Zetterberg.

San Jose had the only power-play chance in the second period.

It came after a slashing penalty against Quincey at 3:40.

Howard made 19 saves in the first two periods, and the Niemi had 11.

The Red Wings killed off a pair of short-handed situations in a scoreless first period.

Datsyuk was penalized two minutes for interference 30 seconds into the contest.

Bertuzzi got two minutes for slashing Tommy Wingels moments after Bertuzzi turned the puck over in the Red Wings’ zone.

Detroit had one power-play opportunity in the first period, and finished the game with two extra-man chances.

Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall did not play, missing a second consecutive game because of a concussion.

Cody McLeod, the Colorado Avalanche winger whose hit sent Kronwall to a hospital last Thursday, was on Monday suspended for five games, the NHL said.